NCDC Insider: Meet Information Management Consultant, Clark Lind

Submitted by susan.osborne on Wed, 03/26/2014 - 10:58am

Information Management Consultant, Clark Lind

NCDC employees constantly collaborate among themselves as well as with others at the National Environmental Satellite, Data, and Information Service (NESDIS) and at the NOAA level. Information Management Consultant, Clark Lind—a government contractor with LMI—helps NCDC effectively and efficiently complete collaborative tasks by tracking requests and providing advice and assistance to the Director’s Office.

On a day-to-day basis, Clark manages any tasks assigned to NCDC from other parts of NOAA, such as NESDIS, or external agencies that require some sort of deliverable. These tasks could be requests for climate data, budget information, administrative information, or even requests from Congress. Clark manages the ingest of these “actions” and then tasks them out to the appropriate people throughout the Center. He then coordinates clearance of the response and provides the input back to the initial requester.

To coordinate these actions and track a wide array of other Center-wide functions, Clark developed an array of online tools to assist managers with understanding the status of various items around NCDC. Additionally, Clark created a new Google site, called “InfoCentral,” where NCDC staff across the country can easily access the latest Center information as well as all administrative items in a centralized location. The tools Clark has created and the advice he provides have greatly increased the transparency and better facilitated operational work done at NCDC. Clark’s attitude of assisting others helps make tracking work around the Center go smoothly and in a coordinated manner.

Clark started his work at NCDC with NOAA’s Technical Support Unit, supporting the National Climate Assessment. Before his tenure at NCDC, Clark served his country in the U.S. Air Force for 28 years, where he started out as a Weather Observer and rose up through the ranks to become a well-respected Weather Station Manager. In his varied worldwide assignments, he has saved lives and property forecasting phenomena from Oklahoma tornadoes to lake effect snow off of Lake Ontario. Clark also was deployed to Central Asia with the Army’s 10th Mountain Division out of Fort Drum, New York, right after September 11, 2001. He culminated his military career as the Superintendent of the 14th Weather Squadron, which is colocated with NCDC in the Veach-Baley Federal Building in Asheville, North Carolina.

Outside of his career, Clark is a husband and a father and enjoys painting and reading in his spare time.

Stay tuned for the next edition of NCDC Insider to meet more of the Center’s dedicated staff.